


Above and Beyond

by Rose_Milburn



Series: The AU life of Ivan Xav Vorpatril [4]
Category: Vorkosigan Saga - Lois McMaster Bujold
Genre: Animal Death, Animal Sacrifice, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-01
Updated: 2021-03-01
Packaged: 2021-03-13 08:28:25
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 544
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29773407
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rose_Milburn/pseuds/Rose_Milburn
Summary: Arlon Price wants to be a Voralys armsman, but some things are above and beyond...
Series: The AU life of Ivan Xav Vorpatril [4]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1001307
Comments: 30
Kudos: 32





	Above and Beyond

**Author's Note:**

> Reference to animal deaths. Don't read if you're sensitive to this kind of thing.

Arlon Price stepped into the shower and let the hot water play over his aching muscles. The warmth could do nothing for his brain though.

"Ma, you were exactly right."

She'd warned him, when he first came up to Vorbarr Sultana. She hadn't exactly said _steep learning curve_ , but it's what she'd meant. Walton had been a fierce and relentless taskmaster during his basic training. He'd never let up, not for an instant, until he'd been the equal of any Imperial recruit. Price ran his hands over his barely-there hair; right down to a regulation buzz cut, in fact. Walton and his training was nothing more than he'd expected though, and he was grateful for it. He'd learned to think and act the same way the others had, until he did it automatically.

No one could have prepared him for _Simon Illyan,_ Simon Vorillyan he should call him now, after the count and his mother both got married on the same day. Basic training wasn't nearly good enough for Simon Vorillyan. Price shook his head at some of the memories. "At least it wasn't just me." All the armsman had been put through drill after drill, scenario after scenario, and more ways to kill someone than Price had thought possible. They'd practised, too, on live targets, down at the range; firearms, knives, bare hands, feet, even. Quick. They'd had to be quick, and clean. He'd even made them butcher the pigs, afterwards, _to get the feel_. Pigs were as close to people they were going to experience apart from the real thing.

"Pigs don't deserve a slow death." He'd told them. "Make it clean, first time. No cruelty." Apart from _death_ , that was. But if he couldn't kill a pig, how was he ever going to kill a human? He'd learned. They all had. Walton hadn't had to, or Devaux and a couple of the others. They knew already. _Been there, done that._

"Expect the impossible," Simon Vorillyan had hammered into them. "Expect the worst. _Never_ let down your guard."

The worst and the impossible. Simon Vorillyan hadn't mentioned Princess and Prince Xav. There wasn't anything in the manuals about _them._ Harper had handled horses, but that was the closest any of them had ever come to being animal wranglers. _Steep learning curve, Ma_. You'd got that right. On his scale of trauma-inducing moments in his life as an armsman apprentice, they had to be right up there. He'd begun, just, to have an understanding with Prince Xav. It was progress, of sorts.

_This, though._ This was above and beyond. Price turned off his shower and reached for his towel. He knotted it round his waist and sat on the locker room bench, staring down at his clenched hands, not really seeing them. He couldn't look, truth be told. He'd get no sympathy from Walton, or any of the others. He had to cope with this on his own. The count had brought him onto his strength for this very purpose. _He could do this_. He had to. Price towelled off and dressed, squared his shoulders and sucked in a deep breath before he took a close look at his hands.

Pink.

Bright pink nail varnish. His Ma had never warned him about _this._


End file.
